Systems are known that print characters in magnetic ink, and those magnetic ink characters can subsequently be recognized by magnetic ink character recognition (“MICR”) systems. Magnetic ink is an ink that contains particles of a magnetic substance, the presence of which can be detected by a magnetic sensor (e.g., a magnetic read head). MICR characters are preprinted in magnetic ink along the bottom edge of a check to identify the bank routing number, account number, and check number of the check. After a first bank receives a check written for a specific amount (e.g., the check is deposited at the first bank), the amount of the check is also printed in magnetic ink characters along the bottom edge of a check during bank industry processing of the check.
To enable MICR systems to recognize magnetic ink characters, the magnetic ink characters are printed in standardized fonts, such as a font known as E13B used in processing checks in the United States. When a magnetic ink character is scanned by a magnetic read head of a MICR system, a voltage proportional to the amount of flux sensed by the read head is produced. FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,938 to Will, issued Jan. 10, 1989, shows electrical signals generated as a MICR magnetic read head scans E13B magnetic ink characters. The electrical waveform for each magnetic ink character is based on the distribution of magnetic ink within each magnetic ink character read area (e.g., the sixty-three block area of each E13B magnetic ink character of FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,938). Characteristics of the waveform are compared to waveform characteristics stored in a memory to recognize the scanned character.
Known MICR character printing systems do not advantageously store an information signal in the magnetic ink of printed magnetic characters. Information, such as authentication data, authorization data, or other data, cannot be read from the printed ink that is stored in the magnetic ink. Instead, as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,712,564 to Hayosh, the magnetic particles in the magnetic ink are typically exposed to a magnetic field to orientate the dipoles of the magnetic particles of a document so that all magnetic vectors lie in the same direction.
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a prior art character printed in magnetic ink upon a paper check. Character 100 is printed in magnetic ink and was exposed to a uniform magnetic field. Each of the magnetic vectors in the magnetic ink of character 100 are aligned in the same direction.
Known systems for printing in magnetic ink do not adequately exploit the possibilities for storing information in magnetic ink.